The Joys and Sorrows of June ACTs/SATs & SAT Subject Tests

Many of you are taking the SAT or the SAT Subject Tests today. For the rest of you who haven’t taken subject tests, if you want to go out of state, you need two at most schools, and it’s best to take them at the end of your year after finals when they’re still fresh on your mind. There is a problem you have to beat, though…

The big problem with the June round of standardized testing is that it’s, well, JUNE. Culturally, all schools gear up for ending, and you get your sights set on your summer of relative fun and freedom, with music clinics/camps withstanding.

It’s very easy not to get your head into the game.

So make sure, as you finish your finals, to pick up the SAT, ACT, or Subject books and pretend, for the extra week, that you’re still in school. Unfortunate, but necessary. Often some of the worst SAT and ACT scores come back from the June round because students have mentally “moved on” to thinking about fun, and this chore is not high on the radar.

If you get good SAT Subject tests in as a rising Junior (Year-end Sophomore) there is good news! Unless you’re going into the STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering, Mathematics) track, where you might want to also take the Math 2 subject test, if you kill on the scores here, YOU’RE DONE. It’s one less pressure point between your Junior and Senior year. Plus, if you don’t do as well as you had hoped, you get two more tests to try, and you only report the good scores.